Rotary's exchange program fosters international goodwill

View full sizeRotary team members Brooks Conkle, left, and Dylan Sherrod are shown with an Indian who had cataract surgery performed courtesy of Rotary International. The photo was taken in the outskirts of Calcutta, India. (Courtesy of Brooks Conkle)

MOBILE, Alabama — In January, four Mobilians and their team leader traveled to India as part of the Group Study Exchange program of the Rotary Foundation and Rotary International.

"The program is designed as a cultural and vocational exchange for young professionals ages 25 to 40," said GSE coordinator Robin Roberts.

Mack Lazenby led the India group, who traveled to Kolkata, Port Blair, Purulia and Kharagpur.

"This is a program Rotary has sponsored for a number of years and is an excellent opportunity for young professionals," said Lazenby. "It was a real adventure being in that part of India. We saw only a small portion of what India had to offer."

Each team has a volunteer leader who must be a Rotarian from their district, but team members are prohibited from joining a Rotary Club until after the exchange.

Rotary provides round-trip airfare, with some restrictions, to the host country where participants stay for one month.

"It was very interesting and encouraging to see the great things that Rotary is doing in India, especially the eradication of polio, and other medical support work," said Lazenby, who added that India has only reported one new polio case so far this year.

"Each exchange is a life-changing experience for those who take part. They come back with a totally different perspective on the world," said Roberts. "Many of the exchanges have been to lesser developed countries. The exchange to India was a totally different experience for the team members. More people live in Kolkata (Calcutta) than live in the entire southeastern part of our country."

Team member and purchasing manager Brent Buckelew, 32, said the trip, his first out of the country, made quite an impact on him.

"Knowing about other countries and actually experiencing other countries are completely different," said Buckelew. "Experiencing the world with your five senses stays with you forever and has a much more tangible effect on your worldview rather than reading articles or books on the subject. It's much more difficult to forget about the things you have experienced first-hand rather than reading about it in the news or seeing it on TV.

"Because of this first-hand experience, you gain a connection and begin to identify with the people you've met," he continued. "Their problems become your concern, their lifestyle becomes your interest and their successes become your joys."

Real estate agent and investor Brooks Conkle, 27, said he traveled with the group to learn more about the international work of Rotary.

"Rotary is an incredible international service organization and India is a country poised for growth," said Conkle. "Their people are very similar to ours. They want the best for their fellow countrymen; they too were ruled by the British. They are just a younger democracy than ours, but they're still the largest one in the world."

Catherine Mackey, 25, volunteer coordinator for the Alabama Coastal Foundation and youth director of All Saints Episcopal Church, said the trip "absolutely" convinced her to become a Rotarian.

"I saw the lives that Rotary changed by providing education, uniforms, school supplies, hospitals, surgeries and the list goes on," said Mackey. "In the U.S., these are things we do not see on a large scale on a daily basis like we saw in India.

"The amount of money donated to a country like India can be stretched much further," said Mackey. "I realized the little things we take for granted on a daily basis are things that can turn around an entire village."

Supply chain professional Dylan Sherrod, 28, said the experience taught him the true meaning and scale of poverty. Of the 1 billion people who live in India, about 800 million of those are said to live on $1 a day, he said.

Sherrod and Mackey said they enjoyed the home stays with native people, which provided true cultural immersion.

Sherrod, Conkle, and Mackey chose to extend their stay another month past the originally scheduled month and returned to Mobile on March 2.

"India is such a large country and there was so much more I would like to see in order to get a feel for the country as a whole," said Mackey.

As part of the exchange, on April 28, a team from Kolkata came to Mobile for a month-long stay that will include visits to Auburn, Montgomery, Selma and Demopolis, which are all part of the same Rotary district as Mobile.

According to Robin Roberts, the India team will “make presentations at all four area Rotary clubs,” will visit with others who share their occupation and will tour the city.

During their visit, they will stay in the homes of local Rotarians and will attend several social functions held in their honor.

To learn more about the Group Study Exchange program or Rotary, visit www.rotary.org .

(This story was written by Christie Lovvorn, Press-Register correspondent.)